Leno Greens His Garage?

Jay Leno has been getting lots of attention for his green transition. He writes a regular column for Popular Mechanics in which he has started talking about green alternatives like eco-friendly parts cleaners and using a water jet in place of a gas-operated plasma cutter.

Most recently, the L.A. Times did a feature on the eco-makeover Leno has done to his Burbank Garage. Leno’s Big Dog Garage is 17,000 square feet of various expensive cars and the equipment to keep them in showroom condition.

 

The retrofit included a $450,000, 54-kilowatt solar power system; more than enough to suit all of Leno’s power needs and sell a significant amount back to Burbank’s grid. He’s also adding a 10-kilowatt wind turbine to keep the power humming in during the night.

 

Keep in mind that these green installations are all for Leno’s Burbank garage. He chose that as his first target because he consumes much more energy there than he does at his Beverly Hills house.

 

On the plus side, Leno is a famous comedian and people will pay attention to what he’s doing. Leno’ championing will make green causes more mainstream and, if elaborate power systems become more popular among the wealthy, the economy of scale could actually make solar panels more affordable for us common folk.

 

The downside that strikes me is the grotesque consumption involved. Leno, with a salary of about $25 million, has more money than he knows what to do with. The portion he spends on sustainable power and in other environmental areas could make a positive impact. The irony of green-powering a 17,000 foot private garage is deep. The guy has oodles of cars (Leno drives a different one every day of the week), sitting in a carefully temperature-regulated environment.

 

The environmental mantra, “reduce-reuse-recycle” is written in descending order of importance. While Leno is reducing the emissions he’s causing by using renewable resources, his conspicuous consumption is a far cry from “green.” Perhaps his eco-gestures reduce his Consumer Consequences index-rating from 20 earths down to 19?